CAUTION FOR DEVIL BUSTERS. Let's Play Megami Tensei II!

According to ancient legend,
we winged ones once rebelled
thwarted and fallen from grace
Our white wings were clipped
And we fell to the dark earth's pits



Now, we will regain our former glory



Hello! I'm Asema, and welcome to Let's Play Megami Tensei II. Or if you want to be technical, we're playing Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei, an SNES remake of the two Megami Tensei games for the NES. Originally developed by Namco, it's considered by most to be a part of the much larger Shin Megami Tensei series by Atlus.

Previously, I Let's Played Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna. It was a pretty bad game, but I like to think my Let's Play was okay, even if my finishing it was long overdue (another LPer, by the name of Crooked Bee, did a much more thorough job on the Something Awful forums: of playing the game, of finishing it, and of doing some very interesting research about it too).



But this time, I'm Let's Playing a good game, and it's not the one selected in this screenshot. I'm hoping I'll finish it in a timely fashion, and go into detail to boot. I'm very fond of it: at one point, I called it my favourite game in the series.



199X The End of the History of Mankind
And time moves on...

It's in Japanese, though, and I'm both self-taught and a little rusty. If anyone reading feels like offering their own translations, for those things in the game text I choose to transcribe and translate, I'd welcome it.

In fact, there's a translation patch for this game that's been in the works for a few years at The Romhacking Aerie, by a person called dds. Sadly, it's been months since I've heard anything about it. Maybe it'll still get finished!



But enough about that. Let's Play Devil Buster!

The game starts by telling us that we're one of the titular Devil Busters. Our task is to defeat the demons and return peace to the world -- pretty simple, but a tall order nonetheless.

The game goes on to make the bold claim that "if what you experience in this game is like real events, it should aid your own experience" -- I think we're playing a very accurate demon extermination simulator, here!

Finally, the game warns us that the main character -- and by extension, we -- won't be strong enough to clear the game from the start. It's nice of the game to outright tell us that we'll need to grind.

Let's get started!



We have three characters to name. Their default names are Hero, Girl and Friend, but we can do better than that. The second is "very important to us", and our friend has no role in Devil Buster, but wants us to (somehow) enter his name anyway. That's all we get to work with.

But wait!



We also have 15 stat points to distribute for both Hero (working title) and Girl (working title). Here's what the stats do:

Vitality increases hit points. It also increases the amount of HP gained at each level up, so investing in it early on is helpful. Hero gains more than Girl by default. I'm not sure if it affects defence, but it might.
Intelligence increases magic power, magic defence, MP, and healing received. It also allows Hero to use certain powerful equipment if it's above 20, which is good, because he can't use magic and doesn't have MP. For those who can cast magic (read: almost everyone else), Intelligence is a useful stat.
Strength increases attack power. It's very useful in a game where you'll be normally attacking a lot, and more useful still for Hero, whose primary offensive option is... to attack.
Agility affects who acts first in a given combat round, odds of ambush and escape, and chance of avoiding attacks. The last two effects are less noticeable, but this stat is still desirable.
Luck affects critical hit rate and item drop rate. It might also affect how easily one avoids status effects. Like in many RPGs, I'm not exactly sure about its effects.

I'll use this initial stat distribution (and opinions in the thread, if any crop up) to determine which stats to increase on level up, as well: each character gains one point per level, and can increase any stat up to a maximum of 35.

I'll try to update weekly, and by the same token I'm going to give the forum some time to submit names and stat distribution.

Hero: BOSS
Girl: TOMATO
Friend: PERCY

Someone else can do stats.

EDIT: Just so you know, other names are WRONG and should be treated as such.

Hero: Butts
Girl: Fanny
Friend: Bizooty

Stats: Butts is strongest one there is (9 strength/6 vitality)

I've thought about buying the famicom carts for this and Megami Tensei 1 several times since they're like 250 yen or something.

Also, happy to see a new LP out of you! Your Wizardry LP convinced me to give the series a try (although I'm playing 7, not 4).

BOSS as the hero is fine, but I'm going to be stubborn and say MARCIA for the girl and HARRY for the friend.

Hero: BOSS
Girl: KOOHII, in honor of BOSS
Friend: COMRADE, because camaraderie trumps any nakama.

It seems like the game sort of makes your stat choices for you, if Hero can't cast spell. Go for maximum kronk when you can, but use a little bit towards int so you can use better gear to kronk with. But then again, you know the game better than me, I don't know the effects of the stats that well, so I'm good with your own judgement for stat distribution.

I'm not so great with names, but as for stats:
Our Hero should be naturally strong with 8 Str, Durable with 4 Vit, and luckier than most with 3 Lu, while our Girl should be smart with 9 Int, alert with 3 Ag and less than frail with 3 Vit

The number of votes (including a vote via IRC for 15 Luck each) created a very rounded stat layout for each character, which suits me fine. Boss starts the game strong, tough, and lucky, with only a point each of Agility and Intelligence as his "dump stats". Tomato is more rounded, with the same focus on Strength and Luck but more Intelligence than Vitality. They'll usually be going last in combat, unless they use items: doing so puts you first in the turn order, and that can be very handy in some cases.



The game is played from a top down perspective. This starting area is completely safe, and it's a good thing, too.



In the southwestern corner we enter a room and find a treasure chest, with 1000 Macca and a Orb just waiting to be taken. When used, Orbs fully heal one ally and also cure poison. They're one of the only healing items in the game, and demons will sometimes ask for them in negotiations. They're always useful.



Our virtual-looking friend here tells us that our goal is to beat Minotaur. A woman in another room says that this is the town of Micon, in the tower of Daedalus.



There are two rooms in the northeastern corner of the town. The first is the Kaifuku, or fountain of healing. We can come here to heal HP and MP, cure status effects, and revive fallen allies, although it costs a little Macca. The second is down a long north-south hallway, and it's the Jakyou, where we can combine two or three demons to create a new demon.

Speaking of demons, another woman in town tells us that we can talk to Yousei (fairies) and Chirei (earth spirits). Not only that, but we really ought to if we're to get anywhere. By talking to enemy demons instead of fighting them, you can recruit them, summon them into your party, and eventually, fuse them into new, hopefully stronger demons. Yousei and Chirei are among the most populous groups of demons, so we'll be getting very familiar with them as time goes on.

Before leaving, we visit the shop in town to purchase weapons and armour. We have just enough to buy a Bronze Sword and Battle Suit for Boss. For Tomato, we buy a Jack Knife and High-Leg Armour. These are the most basic weapons and armour available, but there are several stronger pieces of equipment: Scimitars, Broadswords, Kevlar Vests and Iron Heads -- all quite out of our price range.



♪ Daedalus ♪

Downstairs, the music changes. Unfortunately, only some of the soundtrack has been uploaded onto YouTube. There's one track in particular that I love, and I'll probably go ahead and upload it myself when it plays in-game. In any case, the full soundtrack for the NES version is on YouTube, and it's pretty good too.



Our first battle is against a pair of Gedou Green Slimes, notable because they're the only enemy we can truly steamroll at level 1. Doubly so because our characters have points in Strength: they deal twice each slime's max HP in one stroke.

They also give a pittance of EXP, Macca and MAG, which is required for demons to be in the party without taking damage over time, and consumed by demons with every step in the dungeon.



The elevator isn't moving in town, and it's not working on the floor below, either. It looks like we're walking!



Our next battle is against a trio of Chirei Kobolds. We could probably take one or two, but three is dangerous at level 1, and we can't recruit them since they're higher level than we are. Fortunately, it's easy enough to escape from these early enemies.



Thinking he might have better luck with the weakest of the weak, he talks to a Gedou Will o' Wisp. Unfortunately, of those Gedou that can talk, none of them want anything to do with other demons or humans. They refuse to talk, and pre-emptively attack us.



On the other end of the level, we meet a woman who explains more information than a starting player will need. By fusing demons with Seirei (elementals) -- Fire, Wind, Water, or Earth Slimes or Salamander, Gnome, Slyph or Undine, we can potentially create a demon that's a rank above the previous demon within their clan. A successful elemental fusion with a Yousei, for example, would create the next highest level Yousei.



But we don't have any demons to fuse, let alone the knowledge needed to fuse elementals. In fact, this Pixie is the first demon we try to recruit. When talking to a demon that's open to negotiation, they'll sometimes ask you a question first ("Do you believe all demons should be killed?"), but will usually ask you what you want. At that point, you have four options:

Offer things. The demon will make a request, sometimes multiple consecutive requests. This is usually for Macca, sometimes for an Orb, and occasionally for MAG. Depending on the demon's disposition (and on luck), they might join you, or they might just leave.
Do something to appease them. You can smile at them, put away your weapons, or approach them. Different demons respond differently to each option, although you can use two or all of them in the same negotiation. On occasion a demon will ask a question: depending on your answer, they might be very happy with you, or they might attack. In general, approaching the demon doesn't work well.
Persuade them. You can select any of the above options multiple times, as well as this one. Doing this tends to get the demon to consider whether or not joining you is worth it, and each type of demon has several different things they might say when you try to persuade them, cluing you into their disposition. Waste too much time before offering items, though, and they will often leave or start asking questions.
Intimidate them. For demons of a much lower level than you, this can force them to join the party for free. For demons around your level, this will usually cause them to attack you. Situationally useful.

In reality, demon negotiation isn't complicated, and you'll usually be successful just by trying all of the options sans intimidation before offering items to them. This time, Boss is successful, and Yousei Pixie joins the party.



I didn't take screenshots of demon statistics this update, but now that the thought occurs, I'll make a point of doing so next update. Yousei Pixie has 7 HP, although she takes reduced damage from most attacks, and the spells Di (restores a small amount of HP to one target for 2 MP) and Hapilma (renders a group of enemies happy with moderate success rate, causing them to skip turns or lose attack power, for 4 MP). She's not very useful, even now.

Anyway, on the seventh floor, the nearby staircase leads us to the southwestern corner of the tower, where we encounter a mysterious statue of an evil god. It doesn't do anything, though. And thank goodness! I mean, it's an evil god.



We have enough to worry about, encountering Jaki Wendigo in groups of one to four on the lower floors. They hit hard, take a few hits themselves, and can cast Bufula to freeze and heavily damage a few characters.



We're better than them, though, and for it, we reach the other end of 5F, ascend a staircase, and enter a room where there's a long message written on a wall. It advises us to offer the Orb of Silence to the statue of the evil god, and talks about "the storm awakening from the edge of deep slumber", whatever that means. Previously, an NPC in a room mentioned that Minotaur has the Orb of Silence.

It's not like we weren't going to beat him anyway.

His room is north of the staircase we took to that message, in this suspicious-looking hallway.



He's not happy to see us, either.



Before fighting the boss, I recruited a Kobold and Youki Carbuncle, a level 4 demon with 12 HP, 11 MP, and the spell Zio, which consumes 3 MP to deal two or three hits of electric damage. With the Macca we'd gained from our battles thus far, I went back and bought a Scimitar each for Boss and Tomato.

It doesn't take long for him to go down, since he has about 50 HP and each sword swing or lightning strike was dealing 8 points of damage. He has enough power to one-shot any demon you could recruit at this point, though, or to kill Boss or Tomato themselves quickly enough. I believe he's vulnerable to Hapilma to a degree, or to Dormin (sleep a group of enemies for 2 MP), which Tomato learned alongside Di and Posumdi (cures poison for 4 MP), but it has an even higher chance to miss than it does against enemies in the dungeon, so it may not be worth trying.

There are a few other viable strategies, such as simply buying a Broadsword for Boss and having him hack Minotaur to pieces, or fusing a demon strong enough to take Minotaur down by himself, but this strategy is fairly simple. If you're lucky, the weapon upgrades may not even be necessary.

For our efforts, we're rewarded with the Orb of Silence, which we take to--



Oh.

Lesson learned: don't autobattle Gedou Blue Slimes, which hit much harder and can poison, even if you just killed the boss and you think you're cool.



We awaken from our virtual reality gaming to the voice of our friend Percy.



He laughs at our incompetence, and seems amused by the game over screen ("what was the point of your death?"). Then he asks if we feel up to playing some more, but to be honest, Boss doesn't. These games sure are hard!



Rewarding, though. Boss keeps all of the levels and experience he's gained in Devil Buster in the real world, which makes a soldier in an adjacent room talking about how "the surface world isn't like a game" seem a little silly.



Percy is level 1 because he sucks. He also starts with 8 in all stats. I could keep his stats balanced in this way, but I think he'll focus on Agility.



In another area of the shelter there's an armoury. The man there talks about how the outside world is crawling with demons, and how in the event of an emergency, this is the first place to visit, to suit up and fight back. Boss keeps this in mind, and makes a mental note that he'll need to do most of the suiting up and fighting back for Percy.



Next to the armoury is the Poison Bar, a one-stop alcohol shop. I'm not sure of Boss's and Percy's exact ages, but they're at least "young", so I don't imagine underage drinking is taboo now that the world is full of demons. Other than drinks (which restore a small amount of HP or MP for a small, but disproportionately large, amount of Macca), one can talk to NPCs here to get tips. Or just to be told, as by this guy, about how cute the nurse on B3F is, and asked whether we think so too.



In another room is Percy's girlfriend, Hiroko. She talks about how we're always together, and says that she's a little jealous. She also wonders who this "Tomato" in our game of Devil Buster is.

Elsewhere, there's a man who seems to be friends with Boss. He says if we can clear Devil Buster, he'll give us 750 macca. On discovering that we already beat Minotaur, he's very surprised, but still pays up.

Back at the bar, there's a woman who wouldn't give us the time of day unless we bought her favourite drink for her, but now we have more than enough pocket change to do that. She mentions that after beating Minotaur in Devil Buster, something called Pazuzu showed up, and it's not mentioned in the walkthrough. Unfortunately, Boss hasn't even encountered Pazuzu, so he doesn't know how to beat it.



Deciding some fresh air might clear his head and help him win, Boss goes to the elevator, but it's not in service, so we're stuck on the fourth basement of the shelter. Rats.



On the way back to the computer lab, Boss meets his little brother, who thinks he's leaving and wants to go to the surface world with him.

He's not, though. But he is going to fight that optional superboss Pazuzu. While we never lost the Orb of Silence, we can't offer it to the statue unless we go back to Minotaur's room and confirm that he is, indeed, still dead.



Since we were told to offer the Orb of Silence, not just any Orb, the second option is what we pick. Nothing special happens if you try offering an Orb, anyway, except the game taunting you.

But something happens if you offer the Orb of Silence.

♪ Omen ♪ (NES version)

I, from within the fire and storm, am Maou Pazuzu...

Well, looks like we just awakened a demon lord.



But something's not right. He politely introduces himself as the Pazuzu we heard about before, calling us his saviours. He says that he's a messenger sent by God, and regales Boss and Percy of recent history.

At the dawn of the new millennium, all-out war destroyed civilization. 35 years since then, via a rift caused by the war, demons have entered the world and inhabited the wasteland.



Pazuzu was sealed in this computer by Maou Bael, Tokyo's demon ruler, on arrival. He was powerless until we, his saviours, appeared -- but we're not just his saviours. In fact, he says, we're the children of God who will save mankind.

In that, he will act as our guide.



He presents Boss with the Demon Summoning Program, as well as the demons he befriended in Devil Buster. He also gives us the Automapper, which automatically makes an accurate map of places we travel through. (And unlike in the original Shin Megami Tensei, it can be brought up with one button!)



Percy gets something different, however: the spells Di and Mappara, and the MP to use them.



After offering these to us, Pazuzu says that now that he's been unsealed, so have some other demons attempting to invade the shelter via its computer systems. The necromancer Nebiros is on the first basement, and he's the one we need to defeat.

With that, Pazuzu signs off.



Percy, of course, is dumbstruck. He's at least figured out that wasn't a game, and that we've been dragged into something horrible. But since to him, "it seems like we can't run away", we might as well try being "the saviours or whatever". Our first stop is the armoury!

Next time: Percy sucks, we defeat a necromancer, and adventure!

I say max out Vit ASAP with half as much into Str and Agi during level ups. Who needs Luck and Smarts when you don't even notice the various demons taking chunks out of you.

Edit: whoops a little late to the party. I forgot to say that I'm pretty hyped after your great Wizardry LP.

Hooray!

Also, Percy is not allowed to have any points in Luck. He's got the important role of dropping everything!

I like the idea of dumping all of Percy's points into Agility. If you really want to, just give him lots of Agility and split stats between Intelligence/Strength after he caps Agility.

Aw, can't the localized race names be used?

What's Mappara? Is it the level 2 Map-elemental spell?

Silly Mogri, this is SMT (wait, no. MT.), not FF. The Ma- at the beginning shows it targets everything, which leaves us with "ppara". We can safely drop one of the Ps, since it was probably duplicated to make it sound like a kind of word. So now we have "Para". Paralysis, maybe?

From what I found on the Megaten Wiki, here's this:

I'm not a fan of some of them, and there's at least one race that isn't in later games if I recall. Still, I *could* use both!

I was going to mention it in the next update, where I can show its effects, but yes, it essentially provides a minimap until the next New Moon.

This update will be pretty short, so I don't see any point in not posting it now.

This is Percy's first battle. He's level 1, and these enemies are more level appropriate for Boss than for him; defending, they deal 2 or 3 points of damage to him, and they're less likely to target Percy in the first place. Notably, Tomato started out knowing no magic, and had to level up to get it. Percy can already heal Boss with Di, if need be.



We decide to investigate B3F first. The nurse we heard about before is here, and she just asks how we're doing. We can come back here later for healing, however.



This is Mappara's effect. It displays the surrounding area even if you haven't mapped it yourself. Its orientation is relative, not absolute, so "up" is not north, but always the direction you're facing.



I get greedy with autobattle again, and Boss pays for it, so we visit the nurse...



Unfortunately, she can't help someone who's dead, but suggests there might be someone capable of helping outside of the shelter. Without Boss, we don't have a lot of options.



Releasing the airlock is forbidden, but what other choice do we have? We can put it back quickly enough, anyway.



And here's Tokyo! The sprite on the world map is Percy, not Boss, since Boss is dead and everything.



There's a Kaifuku and a Jakyou in Haneda, to the east, and that's where we revive Boss. He looks different!



We also elect to fuse Genma Alraune, who has a MAG consumption rate of 8 (which doesn't directly correlate to how much MAG is used), the spells Dormin, Hapilma and Diama (restores a larger amount of HP than Di for 4 MP). Not listed here is that she gets two attacks in a row sometimes, and because she's a demon, her attack power and defence scale with level. This means she's quite a bit stronger than our opposition, in spite of her 5 Strength!



There's also a terminal here, which loads the M Program to do... something. It mostly informs us via a message that we can save here.



There's a small freestanding building in Haneda, as well. It's not much, but there are the same demons as there are now in the Shelter (Ghouls and Zombies), a Bronze Sword (hits once, 4 attack power) in a chest which goes to Percy, and several helpful people.

This guy in particular acts as a demon fusion tutorial, and covers a few other demon-related subjects as well. I don't think he was in the NES/Famicom version, but he says a few things even I don't understand, after multiple playthroughs. He implies that it's possible to fuse Evil demons (literally "demons you can't use"), but I've never been able to figure out how, nor is there anything about doing so on the Internet that I've found. If it's possible, I'd enjoy being able to do that.

In the meantime, though, he explains how elemental fusion works in more detail than the single NPC in Devil Busters, but we don't have any need for his advice right now, and after asking whether we think we know more about demons than he does (I just might), he says he'll still be here if we need him.



Most of the people in the area look like this guy, by the way. It's a little strange, being in a community almost entirely composed of tall men wearing sunglasses. This one compliments us on our charm, and says that if you're a charming person, even demons will like you. This is a minor game mechanic, which I'll go into when I have a good example of it.



You can buy guns throughout Tokyo, but swords are only randomly dropped from demons. As you can imagine, without a little grinding, this can make life harder, as some demons are very resistant to gunfire.



On our end of the broken bridge to the north is a turtle named Moura. He says that if we bring him one of the four tokens, the Flame Token, he'll ferry us to the other side.



Back at the shelter, we venture to B1F, where all of the men on the attack team but one have been wiped out. Guess we shouldn't have taken so long getting here! He encourages us not to go, but I think I'd rather fight Nebiros than get wiped out by his zombies.



And Boss would rather beat him than get turned into one of his zombies, which is what he says he'll do. Percy wouldn't make a very good zombie, anyway.



Nebiros is tougher than Minotaur, with some spell or attack that inflicts a status effect and the ability to hit multiple characters with his normal attack, but while he has superior resistances, he has about the same amount of HP. Percy casts Agi (multiple hits of fire damage for 2 MP), which he learned a couple levels ago, Boss guns him down, Alraune attacks, and Carbuncle casts Zio, hoping to shock him. He goes down with minimal fuss, mostly thanks to Alraune hitting for up to four times more per turn than Boss or Percy do.



He gives a whopping 1088 experience, which is enough to raise Boss three levels.

The last man on the attack team thanks us, and we're free to go. Heading back to the Haneda terminal to save, we receive a message stating that the writer's servant has been dispatched to the shelter with the Flame Token, and that they're going to give it to us. Perfect! That's just what we needed.



Back at the shelter, Hiroko gives us the Flame Token while mentioning that a weird girl came from outside and was looking for Boss and Percy. She asks who she was, but her guess is as good as Boss's (and probably better than Percy's).

Hmm...

Next time: Dungeon crawling! Exploration! Salvation!

Fan or not (myself included), it gives people a connection to something they are perhaps more familiar with! And yeah, there are a handful that don't appear elsewhere and at least one was renamed between the FC and this version.

Also, this is as good of a place as any to pimp the MTII Kaneko artwork scans I did last year. Be careful though if you don't want ALL THE DEMONS (except one very important guy) revealed.

Welcome back to Megami Tensei II, starring the demons that were in previous updates but didn't have their character sheets shown!



Chirei (Jirae) Kobold knows the skills Poison Bite and Escape, and no spells. Demons will randomly use their skills when they attack, although demons in the party will never try to use Escape. As far as I know, it has no effect for the player; maybe it increases the party's chances of successfully escaping from enemies, because as time goes on, demons without Escape no longer appear, and around the same time, escaping from battles typically becomes harder.



Yousei (Fairy) Harpy knows the spell Dormin and Escape. Demons can't be ordered to use skills: they automatically do so sometimes when they normally attack. This is too bad, because skills generally entail a tradeoff -- Poison Bite does less damage than a normal attack but poisons, for example. If it could be used on command, that would be nice.



Demons within the same clan all have different stats, as can be seen here. Youki (Brute) Carbuncle is primarily a spellcaster, with just Zio to its name and 7 Intelligence with which to use it. A couple points make a big difference early on, however.



Anyway, now that we have the Flame Token, Moura will ferry us to the next area of Tokyo to the north.



Like in Dragon Quest, new area means new enemies, and crossing bridges is a good indicator that you've stepped into a new area. Youjuu (Wilder) Dead Lobster is one such enemy. They have a decent amount of HP and hit fairly hard, but since they're flying, they're weak to electricity. That means that Carbuncle is still useful, even if Kobold and Harpy are not: a single cast of Zio takes out up to two Dead Lobsters. It's fragile, though, so unless you play like me and always keep the protagonists in the back, moving it there might be a good idea.



Tokyo opens up a little more to the north, with a town and a dungeon entrance.



In Shinagawa, the eastern town, there's an armour shop, but it's closed right now. Incidentally, the shopkeeper is a bit... stereotypical. I'm going to try to overlook that.



People in town talk about how there's a witch living in Tokyo Tower, and a demon named Orthrus came to town attacking people. It's since made its home in Hotel Princess in town, won't come out, and the man who tells us this is flabbergasted at the idea we'd try to recruit or tame him.



There's nothing to the west, so I guess we should follow that tunnel and see where it goes. But first, let's fuse some demons.



Seirei (Elements) are created when you fuse together two demons of the same race. Since the game has a lot of demons from just two clans (Fairy and Jirae), it's even easier to fuse Elements than it is in later games. It's a good thing that Elements are usable in your party as well, since there aren't that many demons you can recruit or fuse.

Seirei (Element) Airy Slime has high Vitality and Speed, but only 5 Intelligence, making its sole Zan spell (one hit of force damage for 2 MP) more situationally useful. Still, it's new, and we can recruit most of the demons we have already, so we fuse it.



Since Airy Slime is Good-aligned, we won't encounter it in battle, so where Evil demons are enemy-only, Good demons are player only. There aren't that many, but most of them are quite strong and worth using. Chirei (Jirae) Dwarf is worth fusing, even if we can recruit it in the next dungeon, because of its high HP and Vitality, and access to Hamaon (multiple hits of light damage for 6 MP) and Rakukaja (increases party's defence, stacking, for 4 MP). It also has Escape.



Until we have a little more MAG, though, we'll be fighting enemies, like Gedou (Foul) Kurabebi with just Carbuncle, Boss and Percy.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

The Hama family of spells isn't instant death here?

I don't know what you're playing, but it's certainly not related to SMT in any way.

The tunnel is subterranean, so presumably it leads somewhere we can't otherwise access.



It can't be called a dungeon, really, since it's just a straight shot down, with one side path featuring two doors. It has new demons, though, like Yousei (Fairy) Goblin, who we recruit.



On our way down, Pazuzu talks to us through our computer and mentions that Orthrus is his servant, staying at Hotel Princess, and that he'll be useful if we make him our minion.



There's a Mesian hiding in one of the side rooms. He pleads with us to defeat the Jabberwocky blocking the tunnel, so he can get to a meeting taking place elsewhere.



The Jabberwocky (whose clan I don't remember) isn't tough enough to be a boss. In fact, outside of Minotaur, all of the bosses up to now have had the normal battle theme, but this game does have a boss theme. It dies quickly to castings of Zio and Agi.



The Mesian thanks us for our help and heralds us as the Messiahs. As proof of our status, he gives us the Seal of Solomon (actually "Solomon's Ring"), and then continues on.



Percy is excited! He says that we really are the Messiahs, and as long as we keep following Pazuzu, we'll have no problems. Maybe he has a point for once.



On the way out, we first encounter Gedou (Foul) Ascomoid, a demon with a somewhat copyrighted appearance. It's not shown here, or one of our party members would be dead, but it has the skill Self-Destruct, which does massive damage based partly on its current HP.



A man in Hotel Princess asks us if we're going to beat the witch at Tokyo Tower, which is still up in the air, and says he doesn't think she's that bad. Maybe we should talk it over with her?



On the first floor, a weapons shop sells new weapons: the Walther PPK we already have, but it also sells the Government (presumably a pistol; one hit, but 4 attack power to the PPK's 2), and Uzis (3 attack power at 1-3 hits per round). We'll come back here when we have more money, because an Uzi would really help Boss.



Here's what the second floor looks like. I neglected to take a picture of the first floor, but it's similar. Most of the dungeons so far are quite small, 5x5 like this one. Not shown: Mappara detected a one-way door in an inaccessible section of the first floor. It's useful for scoping out hidden areas.



Yousei (Fairy) Goblin knows Agi and Escape. It comes too late to be of significant use, but it's relatively fast and smart at 7 and 6 points respectively.



The third floor features dark zones, but they're only two spaces wide each, with exits separated by one or two spaces of darkness. There's a treasure chest in each one, as well.



As dark zones go, I can't complain about these ones. One chest simply contains an Orb, while another contains a Strength Incense.



Taking the elevator on the third floor down to the first, we find ourselves in the previously inaccessible section of 1F.



A dog-like demon, Orthrus, is hiding here. He seems hostile at first, but says that if we want to fight the witch at Tokyo Tower, he'll be our minion. Since things are shaping up that way, we agree, and Majuu (Beast) Orthrus joins us.



Outside, Pazuzu contacts us again to confirm that yes, there's a witch living in Tokyo Tower, and that she'll cause trouble if she's left alone. He encourages us to beat her quickly, and bring Orthrus with us to do it.



There are several towns on the other side of the tunnel (which turns out to be underwater), but the one we want is Shiba, to the north, which is even represented on the world map by Tokyo Tower. There's a Jakyou and Kaifuku here, and the only other building besides the tower is a Terminal.



Given that he's the first Beast we've recruited, Orthrus is a Beast. He has no spells, but he's seven levels higher than us with amazing Vitality and Strength, multiple hits per round, with the skills Claw, Blaze and Howl.



The game saves us the misfortune of backtracking by letting us teleport from Terminal to Terminal in addition to saving, but we don't need to. What we need to do is beat that witch!



There's a barrier around Tokyo Tower, but Orthrus tears a hole in it, and we enter.

Inside, a man asks if we're the Messiahs. If we tell him we are, he knows we're after the witch, and tells us to get out, but doesn't do anything other than that. There are a couple new demons here, but I don't get the chance to show them off since Tokyo Tower is only two floors, one of which is a hallway and the second of which is a four-by-four area with redundant pathways.

We find the witch in short order behind a series of two doors.



She, too, has been expecting us.



Orthrus immediately confronts her, calling her out. "Tomato, you traitor!" he says, and then he says that now that the Messiahs are with her, this time won't be like the last.



Tomato taunts him, asking if he's come back to be tamed again, but then addresses us more respectfully, although with some regret that "[we] let this dog fool [us]". She says if we want to talk, we should put away our weapons.

Let's at least give her a chance.



She explains that Pazuzu must be fostering obedience in us really well, since in reality all he's doing is using us to beat Bael the Tyrant (or Maou Bael, if you'd like). To her, it's just a power struggle. She asks if we can get behind that.

I doubt Percy will agree. But what does Boss think?

Next time: What does Boss think? Oh, and who should get the Strength Incense? It also fully restores HP and MP. Should I save it for Percy later, in case he runs out of MP?

It's not in Digital Devil Saga either.

Boss will side with the girl before he sides with Percy.

Boss should agree with Tomato.

Welcome back to Megami Tensei II!



Pazuzu is a bit suspicious, and ordering us to kill someone who seems well-liked is odd...



But when we say we'll cut ties with him, Percy appeals to us: who do we have to thank for making it this far?



Percy refuses to believe Tomato, or even entertain her ideas, so she gives up on him. But Boss believes her.



Percy says to forget about her and believe him, but in the end, Boss and Percy disagree, and that's all there is to it.



Percy can't believe that we'd side with the girl over him, and says that when they next meet, if we're still opposed to him, he'll do something to us, but he trails off before he can bring himself to finish that thought.

He says that he's going to take his half of the Macca, Solomon's Ring, and Orthrus. Then, without so much as a "Sorry, Boss!", he departs.



Tomato stays her spell and takes off her hood. She apologizes for what just happened with Percy, but says she'll travel with us and fight for us in his place. Maybe, if we succeed and bring peace to the world, he'll come to understand.



Percy leaves the party, and Tomato joins us.

Well, back to business.



Tomato starts with both the equipment and levels she had when we finished the introductory section in Devil Buster. As such, she's about as underleveled relative to us as Percy was at first, since Boss is now about level 14.



On our way out, we meet some old friends. Tomato also lacks Percy's offensive ability, but Dormin still works well enough!



On the way out, we recruit Yousei (Fairy) Elf, who has Hapilma, Medi (restores a tiny amount of HP to the entire party for 4 MP), and Escape. Medi is the reason you would use Elf, and while it's reasonably compelling, she's fragile for our current level. If you were to fuse her earlier on in the game, she'd probably be amazing, but I've never done that.



I was mistaken, and all force spells (Zan series) only hit once, but they hit hard. So naturally, Youki (Brute) Kimahris would be a good choice if we wanted a bit more magical punch. But fusing him isn't a good idea, and there isn't anything else good to fuse, so we leave Shiba and hit the road.



Roppongi just to the west is the next town we visit. It has an interesting layout with impassable forests, multiple interlinked buildings, and some (unfortunately closed) junk shops.



The eastern area of Roppongi is one of the largest dungeons so far, but fortunately there's a Kaifuku and an equipment shop near the entrance. This one sells equipment for Tomato; if we were to come here with Percy the shopkeeper wouldn't sell us anything.



Notably, this is the first time we've had a full party, and this is also the first time we've really needed it: Akuryou (Spirit) Corpses are plentiful and come in large groups. They have little defence but a lot of HP and several immunities, can call allies, and hit fairly hard.



Fighting them is an involved process of piling on the damage, taking and dealing a lot of it, while keeping your party healthy. If you take too long they'll multiply, and quickly, up to a maximum of eight.



They give a lot of MAG, which is a subtle indicator of the fact you really ought to have four demons summoned by now, especially if you have an underleveled partner. Because most of the enemies here are undead, Percy would be quite useful.

Akuryou (Spirit) Bodyconian is one of several Evil demons that will negotiate with you. I'll show that off later, but suffice it to say that the best possible result is that they'll leave. That's not a good risk to take with enemies that can consistently paralyze characters, indefinitely preventing them from acting and dealing damage similar to poison. We lose one demon to this.



After losing several demons to a Corpse group, we go to the world map, but it isn't much friendlier. Kyojin (Psycho) Highway Stars are some of the toughest enemies. Kyojin are the only human enemies in the game; they're Evil demons that will negotiate with you and typically deal gun-based damage. The Highway Stars do this, and in spades.



This is as far north as we can go from Roppongi, as well. Pleasant-looking crater there.



With our party cut in half, all of the fights are getting harder, but Gedou (Foul) Man Eaters are among the easier enemies here.